This morning, I left the house at 4:45am to drive down to Temple City to meet up with Jim Pike, my wife’s cousins husband. We loaded up the bikes and headed to Bell Gardens. Since we were a bit early, we stopped at Starbucks for some coffee. We got to the John Aston Ford Park and Jim registered, I pre-registered. Due to possible rain, we stated upfront that we would do the 30 miler, instead of the 62. That made more sense, since I am so out of shape. I have only rode twice this calendar year. Once for 25 miles and last weekend for 36 miles.

The course was just beautiful and we cycled up the San Gabriel river for six miles and then up the hill to Montebello. Down we went and got some light rain. Cycling has really thin tires and with rain and a guy who is heavy, the center of gravity is also high, so I needed to be careful. I had to reduce speed around any corners just to be sure not to crash.

After the first stop about 17 miles, in the rain picked up again. We could feel the temperature drop and rain increase. When we got down with south bound river segment, and went west on Foster road, the rain just opened up on us. It rained really hard and filled the streets with plenty of water. Being we were riding in inches of water on the roads, there was not a dry spot on us. I feared for my phone not surviving (it did). We finished up in about two hours, wet and cold. The meal was nice (chicken, bread, and salad). We were some of the first to return, so we were able to find cover out of the rain while we eat.

My Garmin data.